Huawei is among a few manufacturers who still competes on the market of high-end tablets against Apple and Samsung. This week the company introduced its MatePad Pro, a high-end tablet which is being positioned to rival Apple’s iPad Pro as well as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6. The tablet features a large display with a punch hole camera for selfies as well as Huawei’s top-of-the-line SoC.

Huawei’s MatePad Pro comes in an aluminum chassis that is 7.2 mm thick with 4.9-mm bezels, holding a 10.8-inch, 16:10 aspect ratio AMOLED display with a 2560x1600 resolution. The display has a punch hole for an 8 MP selfie camera, whereas the main camera on the backside of the tablet has a 13 MP CMOS sensor and a LED flash. The tablet is based on Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 990 application processor paired with 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM as well as 128 GB or 256 GB of NAND flash storage. Meanwhile, Huawei will initially offer the tablet in Wi-Fi only configurations as well as a Wi-Fi with 4G/LTE version, with a 5G model due in the first quarter of next year.

Being aimed at demanding users who are after more than a portable television, the Huawei MatePad Pro will come with the company’s M-Pen stylus for drawing and precise interaction with programs. To maximize the battery life of the device, Huawei equipped it with a 7,250 mAh battery, which in turn can be charged with Huawei’s 40 W SuperCharger or 15 W wireless charging.

On the software side of matters, Huawei’s MatePad Pro is based on Google’s Android 10 with EMUI 10, but lacks Google’s Play and Mobile Services suite, which is likely to make it considerably less competitive outside of China. The good news, at least, is that the tablet has a laptop mode, which will make it easier to use for productivity applications.

Huawei MatePad Pro
  Specifications
SoC HiSilicon Kirin 990
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.86 GHz
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.36 GHz
4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.95 GHz
Graphics Arm Mali-G76
Display 10.8-inch
sAMOLED
2560×1600
Storage 128 GB
256 GB
512 GB
Nano Memory card slot
Memory 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM
Wireless Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G+5GHz, MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct,
Bluetooth v5.1
GPS A-GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
Connectivity USB 3.1 Type-C for data and charging
Camera Rear Camera: 13 MP
Front Camera: 8 MP
Video Recording: UHD 4K (3840×2160) @ 30 fps
Playback: ?
Audio 4 × Speakers
USB-C headset
Sensors Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Compass
Battery 7250 mAh
Dimensions 246 × 159 × 7.2 mm
460 grams
Color White, Black, Green and Orange
OS Android 10 with EMUI 10
Price Starts at $392 in China
Accessories various

Huawei is currently taking pre-orders on its MatePad Pro in China with the aim to start actual shipments on December 12. Depending on the version, the MatePad Pro will cost from CNY 3,299 to CNY 4,499 ($392 ~ $533 without VAT). As for colors, the company will offer its premium tablet in White, Black, Green and Orange colors. Huawei yet has to formally announce the MatePad Pro outside of its home market.

Related Reading:

Sources: Huawei, GSMArena, TechRadar

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  • obama gaming - Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - link

    Nice big battery... although would've liked a bit more RAM
  • Abujapet - Thursday, January 23, 2020 - link

    I bought the 6gb ram 128gb wifi china version.
    Preinstalled googleplay, yes some app aint able to install via googleplay but i can install the app via their official website. I use it for gaming and set to hdr graphic, pretty handy indeed, much cheaper than s6!
  • ptrouton - Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - link

    The new tablet model from Huawei is certainly good. The actual filling of the middle class, but I am confused by the lack of Google services, and the potential transition to the not fully tested operating system Huawei Harmony OS. In contrast, recently the Xiaomi company made a small leak of information that in August an updated line of their tablets will be presented, where of course Google services will be present. And judging by the characteristics, there will be an excellent screen on which reading information will be much more convenient, since, for example, I sometimes order an essay for https://essayup.com/ and read a lot. Therefore, I'm waiting for the release of the tablet from Xiaomi to the global market
  • imaheadcase - Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - link

    Yah no google play, why even bother if outside the USA. Learned my mistake from Samsung tablets, once support is up, no more google play updates to ANY software, not just OS.
  • PeachNCream - Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - link

    Yeah, were would we be with less of Google's back hatch molesting of every scrap of data they can get their sticky hands on to build a harvestable profile about you to sell off via ad services and the inevitable major hacking screw up?
  • leo_sk - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link

    I don't get it. I have got an old KitKat smartphone and it still updates softwares from google play. Hadn't had an OS update in idk how many years
  • PEJUman - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link

    I second this, just reverted my note 2 back to it's last stock KitKat release to use as the kids tablet. Pleasantly surprised to see a sizable number of apps are getting updates from Goggle Play.
  • PeachNCream - Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - link

    The term "selfie camera" demonstrates some of the highest quality journalism the Internet has ever seen..
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, November 26, 2019 - link

    Unfortunately we don't get to name these things. Otherwise if I were the lord of tech naming, that and calling things magic would be the first two terms to go!
  • quiksilvr - Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - link

    He's being a douche muffin because he expects his highest caliber of journalism to say "front-facing camera" because only tweenagers say "selfie-camera" and that triggers him. Also can we get Disqus or some form of commenting system that lets us edit shortly after the fact (but not permanently) and vote comments up and down or mark as spam?

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